Absolutely. That might seem to be the surface story, but it very much isn't. The story might seem more intriguing once you realize -- and it's not immediately obvious -- that some of the characters are aliens, and there is even one minor character who seems to be traveling through time in reverse. The surface elements -- the torturer's guild, the Autarch, even the Claw of the Conciliator (an ironic McGuffin) -- are fantasy tropes that Wolfe uses to tell a much richer, more complex story. Even the title might be a pun; New Sun/New Son, the story of a prophesied saviour.